I’ll make this short and sweet. Jason Taylor is one of the best defensive players of all-time.

With 139.5 sacks, active league leader Taylor is sixth on the NFL’s career list. The former Akron Zip trails only Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Greene, Chris Doleman and Michael Strahan among sack leaders all-time.

The six-time Pro Bowler holds Dolphins career records for sacks (133), opponents’ fumble recoveries (27), fumble returns for touchdowns (6), defensive touchdowns (9) and interceptions by a defensive lineman (7). The 9 touchdowns by a defensive lineman is the most in NFL history. His best season was in 2006, when he was the NFL defensive player of the year.

The HOF is for special players, and I believe Jason Taylor was one of those. When I think of the best players of the past decade, his name must be included. It’s really that simple. It’s extremely difficult to compare eras, as the stats change as the game changes. Also the players physically have evolved so it’s not as simple as saying one guy versus another. So I think it best to just do a generation by generation analysis. Defining generations and eras is subjective, but not impossible. Obviously not everyone’s primes will overlap perfectly making side-by-sides difficult even for careers that overlap.

By any measure, Jason Taylor was a difference-maker. A respected, talented performer who produced at a high level for a long time. A 15-year career that included 6 Pro Bowls, and 3 All-Pro’s is a numeric description, but even that doesn’t do justice to the importance of Taylor to the Dolphins and the NFL.

I think it’s debatable, as most opinions are, but I think Taylor should be in Canton.